Reconsider Visiting Thailand’s Southern Provinces

The U.S. State Department issued a Level 3 Travel Advisory for the southern provinces of the Kingdom of Thailand.

The Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, and Songkhla province Travel Advisories were issued by the State Department on February 7, 2020, due to related periodic violence.

The State Department says ‘U.S. citizens are at risk of injury due to the possibility of indiscriminate attacks in public places.’

To protect visitors, martial law is in force in this region of Thailand.

And, ‘The U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in these provinces as U.S government employees must obtain special authorization to travel to these provinces.’

However, the overall State Department advisory for Thailand remains at Level 1 status.

Separately, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised on February 6, 2020, against all but essential travel to areas within the provinces on the Thailand-Malaysia border.

Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the center of the Southeast Asian Indochinese Peninsula, consisting of 76 provinces and about 68 million residents.

Thailand welcomed about 38 million visitors during 2018, most originating their travels from China. 

If you decide to travel to Thailand, the State Department suggests enrolling in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive Alerts and have a contingency plan for emergency situations.

U.S. citizens can contact the Embassy in Bangkok at 95 Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand + (66) (2) 205-4049.

From a health-risk perspective, on January 31, 2020, the Thailand Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) announced 19 confirmed cases of novel Coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV in Thailand.

Additionally, the MoPH confirmed the first human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus in Thailand. 

Previously, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) included Thailand in the Global Measles Outbreak Notice, which was updated on January 03, 2020.

The CDC says ‘Before you travel internationally, regardless of where you are going, make sure you are protected fully against measles.’

The CDC also suggests various travel-related vaccinations, which can be found at this CDC page. 

For the most up-to-date health information, visitors to Thailand are advised to consult the CDC and World Health Organization websites. 

Travel advisory and vaccination news published by Vax-Before-Travel.